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The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

Newstalk ZB
The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin
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  • The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

    Dame Silvia Cartwright: former NZ Governor-General on her new memoir 'That Woman'

    20/09/2026 | 16 mins.
    Dame Silvia Cartwright has been a trailblazer for women in the fields of law and justice, and she's detailed her life story in a new memoir.
    She was one of two women studying law at Otago University in the 1960s, and went on to become New Zealand's first female High Court judge and the second woman to hold the role of Governor-General at a time when the sector was overly male.
    She's been on an extraordinary professional journey, which she's detailed in her new memoir That Woman.
    "I do remember reading, or at least glancing at a book about Roman law when I was about 14 - but I think it was a process of elimination. In those days , if a woman studied at university, the options were fairly limited to teaching, nursing, or - being Dunedin - medicine."
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  • The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

    Keala Settle: singer and actress on her upcoming performance in Sunset Boulevard at Wellington Town Hall

    20/09/2026 | 15 mins.
    Actress and singer Keala Settle was launched into international stardom thanks to her role in The Greatest Showman as the bearded lady, Lettie Lutz.
    She sang the film's biggest hit This Is Me, which won a Golden Globe and got an Oscar nomination - and it ensured the Tony-nominated actress became a household name.
    Keala Settle spent a lot of time in New Zealand visiting family as she grew up, and she's set to return to our shores for the WITCH musical theatre premiere of Sunset Boulevard at the Wellington Town Hall.
    "I'm just excited to go back - and then just forgot that there's this actual job that I had to do. So it could be overwhelming, if I let it be. But I'm just trying to keep my wits about me as much as I can and lean on everyone that's around me."
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  • The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

    Whitcoulls Recommends: The Pirate Queen and Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel

    20/09/2026 | 3 mins.
    The Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawhon. Fiction, based on the real life of Grace O’Malley who lived in the 16th century and gained renown as a fiercely independent woman and a fearless pirate who controlled an army of men, key maritime routes and trade in the west of Ireland. Suffering English rule, she bowed to no one and her story is extraordinary. This is by the author of The Frozen River which is one of my favourite books in recent years.
    Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel by Lucy Foley. Readers of Agatha Christie will be familiar with Miss Marple, her village living amateur detective about whom many books were written. Lucy Foley has now produced a new Miss Marple story, authorized by the Christie estate - in which Miss Marple finds herself in a flash hotel high in the Alps where murders occur and of course her sleuthing skills come to the fore. It’s a real homage to the original author, and fans of her work - but also readers discovering them for the first time - will find much to enjoy.
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  • The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

    Megan Singleton: BloggerAtLarge.com writer and travel correspondent on how to make the most of Aitutaki, Cook Islands

    20/09/2026 | 3 mins.
    Travel expert Megan Singleton recently went to the Cook Islands and she's revealed how to make the most of one small island - described as 'heaven on Earth'.
    The tiny island of Aitutaki is about 220km north of Rarotonga, and easily accessible on a short flight from the region.
    Megan says you'd need three or four days on the island to see all that it has to offer - and outlined her recommendations.
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  • The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

    The Sunday Panel: Will National's supermarket policy announcement lose votes?

    20/09/2026 | 9 mins.
    This week on the Sunday Panel, Partner at Freebairn and Hehir lawyers Liam Hehir and journalist, TV producer and commentator Irene Gardiner joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more!
    National has proposed to, if elected, break up Foodstuffs in a bid to bring down food prices for Kiwi consumers. Has National made a mistake with this policy? Does this completely go against the party's values of ambition and hard work and success? Do they also need to take a look at banks or petrol companies?
    Labour's Chris Hipkins recently claimed smaller parties shouldn't be able to veto National and Labour working together amid calls for more bipartisanship for key issues like the NZ-India trade deal or the teen social media ban. Do we think Hipkins has a point here? Would the benefit of the two major parties agreeing and working together outweigh any negative?
    Wahs fever is on the rise - how excited are we for tonight's big game?
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About The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin
News, opinion, analysis, lifestyle and entertainment – we’ve got your Sunday morning listening covered with The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin on Newstalk ZB.
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